Mark D. Obenshain

It was 1965 and Henry Marsh sat incredulous as Virginia's former attorney general told a U.S. Senate hearing that the commonwealth didn't discriminate against black voters. What would eventually be known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was up for debate, and Virginia most certainly didn't want to lumped in with other Southern states. Marsh, then a 31-year-old lawyer, held a copy of a recent federal court ruling holding Virginia in violation of voting rights. At the lunch break, Marsh approached a young Sen. Ted Kennedy and handed him a copy. "After lunch, he interrogated Mr. Gray," Marsh said last week, referring to former Virginia Attorney General Frederick...

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It was 1965 and Henry Marsh sat incredulous as Virginia's former attorney general told a U.S. Senate hearing that the commonwealth didn't discriminate against black voters.
What would eventually be known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was up for...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday that he has raised more than $341,000 for a gubernatorial bid and more than $114,000 for a political action committee aimed at helping his fellow Democrats retake the state Senate.
...

As state police, elected officials and many other Virginians try to understand how a University of Virginia student wound up on a Charlottesville sidewalk, bloody and prone, one piece of the puzzle is conspicuously absent: Body-camera footage.
The...

RICHMOND — After hours of back and forth at the end of a 45-day legislative session, House and Senate negotiators struck a deal on new ethics reforms and brought the 2015 General Assembly session to a close.The new ethics rules would cap gifts from...

Deep inside complex legislation to legalize phone-based car services such as Uber and Lyft sat language meant to prohibit drivers from discriminating against gay or transgender riders.
The wording, picked up from legislation proposed in states where...

Legislation sponsored by two Virginia lawmakers calls for greatly increasing the number of people who must provide DNA samples to the state upon their convictions.
Under current law, everyone convicted of a felony and a very small number of...

RICHMOND - There may be a move to block a pending gasoline tax increase when legislators return to session Monday, though Speaker of the House William Howell was quick to pour cold water on it Saturday.
Del. Bob Marshall is trying to gin up support,...

Senate hopeful Ed Gillespie conceded his race against U.S. Sen. Mark Warner Friday afternoon, saying the gap in the close race was too much to over come.
"As you know the canvassing is just about completed and the official tally is now a gap of more...

For the moment, the war for one of Virginia's two U.S. Senate seats is on hold as local election officials across the state launch their usual one- to three-day effort to verify results from Tuesday's unexpectedly close race between Sen. Mark Warner and...

For the moment, the war for one of Virginia's two U.S. Senate seats is on hold, as local election officials across the state launch their usual one-to-three day effort to verify results from Tuesday's unexpectedly close race between Sen. Mark Warner and...

Virginians who let their driver's licenses, passports or other photo IDs expire will still get a chance to vote, as long as those documents aren't too old.The State Board of Elections struck a compromise Wednesday between those who argued that an...

Virginians who let their driver's licenses, passports or other photo IDs expire will still get a chance to vote, as long as those documents aren't too old.
The State Board of Elections struck a compromise Wednesday between those who argued that an...

One of the last moving pieces in the financing of last year's high-drama politics has finally moved, a $200,000 payment five days ago from Gov. Terry McAuliffe's political action committee to his inauguration committee.
That sum allows the inaugural...

Governor's race
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Republican: "Ken Cuccinelli opposes Medicaid expansion until states can opt out of the program entirely. We must ensure Medicaid's core mission of offering a health care safety net for our most...

In a microcosm of the national partisan divide over federal health care reform, popularly known as Obamacare, Virginia has put one element — the expansion of Medicaid — front and center in the political debate preceding November's election.
While...

Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday that he has raised more than $341,000 for a gubernatorial bid and more than $114,000 for a political action committee aimed at helping his fellow Democrats retake the state Senate. "Virginians are...

Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday that he has raised more than $341,000 for a gubernatorial bid and more than $500,000 to help his fellow Democrats retake the state Senate. "Virginians are responding to our message of protecting...